--- title: This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds description: Beautiful Japanese animation comes to life with a quick flip of your thumb canonical: https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-12T17:44:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:43.600Z article:section: Ideas og:title: This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds og:description: Beautiful Japanese animation comes to life with a quick flip of your thumb og:url: https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds twitter:description: Beautiful Japanese animation comes to life with a quick flip of your thumb twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds by [Nicole Hughes / Lost At E Minor](https://time.com/author/lost-at-e-minor-zolton-zavos/) ## Nicole Hughes / Lost At E Minor Dec 12, 2014 5:44 PM UTC by [Nicole Hughes / Lost At E Minor](https://time.com/author/lost-at-e-minor-zolton-zavos/) ## Nicole Hughes / Lost At E Minor Dec 12, 2014 5:44 PM UTC  _This_ [_article_](http://www.lostateminor.com/2014/12/11/flip-book/) _originally appeared on_ [_Lost at E Minor_](http://www.lostateminor.com/)_._ Are you in the middle of Christmas shopping? Not exactly sure what to buy your kid cousins? Here’s a good, entertaining gift they’ll enjoy. An old-fashion [flip book](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp%5Fbyline%5Fsr%5Fbook%5F1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Mo+hitotsu+no+kenkyujo&search-alias=books&text=Mo+hitotsu+no+kenkyujo&sort=relevancerank)! With a quick flip of your thumb, you can see the beautiful Japanese animation come to life and start moving off the page. With negative space and secret chambers, the book’s artist, Mou Hitotsu, reveals magical stories in motion. Check out the video for a unique storytelling technique! ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/"},"headline":"This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds","datePublished":"2014-12-12T17:44:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:43.600Z","description":"Beautiful Japanese animation comes to life with a quick flip of your thumb","url":"https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/","keywords":["Innovation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nicole Hughes / Lost At E Minor"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3630138/japanese-flip-book/","name":"This Japanese Animated Flip Book Has Permanently Bent Our Minds"}}]}] ```